Weed Seeds in the Orange Snow?

Saturday I was out to the farm to get the equipment ready for spring fieldwork. It was a case of routine maintenance and hooking up the planter, field cultivator, and sprayer. I even changed the oil and got the lawn mower ready for another season. It sure was a nice day with sunshine and temperatures in the 70's. I sure hope we are finally done with the cold and snow.

There was not much snow left to melt, just a little in the ditches and windbreaks. As the the orange snow melted I was thinking about where it came from and what else might be in it other than dust particles. Remember that big storm picked up dust particles from the southern U.S. and deposited them in Minnesota. Their soil is a an orange color rather our soil that is black.

I was wondering if the storm could have picked up weed seeds like maybe Palmer Amaranth and blown them into Minnesota. Tom Hoverstad, Scientist at the Southern Research and Outreach Center at Waseca said the dust particles were much smaller than a Palmer Amaranth seed.

Tom talked with other weed scientist at the University of Minnesota and the consensus was that it was unlikely any weed seeds were blown into Minnesota with the storm. However, farmers should always be on the lookout for weeds they have not seen in their fields before.